Alaska Airline has been busy defending their ground in the battle for Seattle with Delta this year and has expanded new service from Seattle to Baltimore, Detroit, Albuquerque, Tampa, and Cancun and has also grown in Salt Lake Cities by increasing frequencies between Seattle and Salt Lake and expanding new service to five destinations: Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and San Jose. Despite all this growth, Alaska has not forgotten about their newer employee base in San Diego and announced yesterday new plans to serve Kona from San Diego three times a week starting next spring, increasing their service from San Diego to a fourth Hawaiian Island.
Summary of new service:
| Start date | City pair | Departs | Arrives | Frequency |
| March 5 | San Diego-Kona | 5:55 p.m. | 10:10 p.m. | Mon, Thurs, Sat |
| March 5 | Kona-San Diego | 9:00 a.m. | 4:25 p.m. | Mon, Thurs, Sat |
“Known for industry-leading customer satisfaction and innovative technologies that make travel easier, Alaska has grown its service from San Diego, adding flights to Boise, Boston, Fresno, Honolulu, Kahului (Maui), Lihue (Kauai), Mammoth Lakes, Monterey, Salt Lake City, Santa Rosa, Orlando and Puerto Vallarta.
“We’re growing and adding flights in important West Coast markets to give our customers more opportunities to explore the great places we fly,” said Joe Sprague, the airline’s senior VP of communications and external relations. “We are thrilled to bring the white sand beaches, black lava fields and unique Polynesian culture of Kona and Hawaii’s Big Island to our San Diego customers.”
Alaska Airlines has seen instrumental growth at SAN with little to no competition on many routes it serves nonstop from San Diego. Two years ago I wrote about Alaska’s continual growth at SAN and their need to open a Board Room at the airport, although we have not seen an addition of a Board Room, their growth in the San Diego market has not slowed down.
Next Spring Alaska will serve 12 destinations from San Diego, including 4 beach locations in Hawaii. Alaska will operate 19 weekly flights between the Hawaiian Islands and San Diego next March on all 737-800 fleet featuring 16 passengers in First and 147 in Economy for a total of 3097 weekly seats to and from Hawaii!
| San Diego – Honolulu, Oahu | Sun, Mon, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat |
| San Diego – Kahului, Maui | Daily |
| San Diego – Lihue, Kauai | Tue, Thurs, Sat |
| San Diego – Kona, Hawaii | Mon, Thurs, Sat |
Flights to Hawaii can be booked via Alaska Airlines and introductory fares to Kona start at $219 one way. Or if you want to get away for free Alaska Airlines is partners with American Airlines, British Airways, Air France-KLM, and Delta and all offer great opportunities to cash in miles to the Islands with Air France and British Airways requiring the fewest number of miles.
| Airline | Economy (one-way) | First (one-way) |
| Alaska | 20K | 40k |
| Delta | 22.5k | 40k |
| America | 22.5K miles | 37.5k miles |
| British Airways | 12,5k | 37.5K |
| Air France/KLM | 15k | 27l |
